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Mularuhm
Geography The most densely populous area in the region, and any nearby underground region, is the large Mularuhm River Cavern – the mighty Mularuhm River has carved out a massive tunnel underground, stretching from its source in the mountains to the ocean coast. It is a cave almost a thousand feet tall in some places (not including the 30–40 feet deep river), 300 hundred feet wide on average, that stretches for hundreds of miles underground. Nearly all of the dwarves of this region live here, and it is where all their major cities are found, with settlements elsewhere typically being little more than mining towns. The largest cavern on the river is the home of the capital of the realm – Dag Torum. It is a massive city, and showcases the pinnacle of dwarven engineering. Intricately carved buildings line the walls, and the stalactites and stalagmites have been carved into representations of the kings of old. At the delta of the river is Hrogar’s Falls, named for the dwarf who first found the exit to their great tunnel. A 50’ fall from the lip of the caves into the ocean below. On each side of the caves are carved paths and large permanent scaffolding, with houses crawling up the cliff sides from the ocean surface up into the tunnel. This is Hrogar’s Outpost, and is the closest surface dwellers can get to the dwarven homeland. It handles all trade between the dwarves and outsiders, using large winches and pulleys attached to scaffolding to haul cargo up to the river and back down to the ocean. People The Mularuhm Dwarves take their name from the river that provides them life. Their civilization extends through the entire cavern and its nearby cave systems, with cities and towns carved into the walls of the caves in a very distinctive style. They look like most dwarves – short and stocky, bearded and bushy eyed, and living between 150–200 years, if they die of old age. They decorate their bodies with various metals – both wearable jewelry (necklaces, rings, etc) and piercings of all sorts are common. The poor typically wear copper or iron, with precious metals reserved for holy days. The rich wear their gold and silver jewelry daily, and may even have a piece of mithril or electrum they wear on special occasions. The society is very family based – each family is led by a married couple who share power. Each family is part of a Clan led in a similar way, and the heads of each clan pays homage to the High King. When a leader dies, those immediately below them (clan leaders if the King dies, Family Heads if a Clan Leader dies, or married couples if a Family Head dies) elect a replacement from their ranks. The Clans also follow a Caste based system. Clan Heads are members of the Head Caste, and while they belong to their own Clans whom they represent they fall outside the general role of their Clan itself. The head couple of the Swordcarver Clan for instance represents the interests of the Swordcarver Clan, themselves the finest craftsman of weapons for the Mularuhm, but rarely do these Heads have experience working the Clan specialty, having been raised to best fit their caste roll. As married couples head clans it became important in the society to distinguish the rights of men and women, and as such rules were established for clan inheritance. All children born to a sanctified union belong to the clan of their father and the caste of their mother. As such the daughters born to Clan Heads are often married to the sons belonging to other Clan Heads, thus retaining the caste of Clan Head for their children and allowing the heirs of current Clan Heads to produce their own progeny. The same folllows all the way down through individual families amongst the clans and keeps the Dwarven society functioning and equal. The most prominent clan in Dwarven history and politics is the Clan Ringmaker, which has served as the royal line for the Mularuhm for hundreds of years. Though the heir to the previous High King is elected by the Clan Heads, tradition holds that the heir generally be the eldest son of the previous High King. Though various times in history this has not always held, it is generally practiced and never has a non-Ringmaker been elected to serve as High King, though such remains a possibility by Dwarven Law. The Dwarves themselves, though long lived, suffer from slower breeding rates than many surface dwelling races. The largest number of children ever recorded to be born in a lifelong union remains to be five, and such was an extreme circumstance. The average tends to be closer to two, if not one, and though some developments have allowed for faster breeding the majority of population growth comes from the long lives of all the inhabitants. Most Dwarven children are born when their parents are in their forties, and some of the later births occurred when the mother was in her nineties. Though it's not impossible for Dwarves to have children while in their twenties, such is rare and often seen as the act of rash members of the community. There is also a propensity among the Dwarven people to produce more males than females, leading to a pressure on their numbers. The current High King and Queen are High King Konhagen Ringmaker and High Queen Kaitlind Gemgrinder. The pair are more in line with the historic average age of King and Queen in Mularuhm, being 56 and 53 respectively. Konhagen was elected by the Clan Leaders after a stint of nearly 20 years in which a relative of the late King Kalderdan, himself childless at the time of his death during the Norogh invasion, could not be found and the coalition of Clan Leaders, unable to decide on a Clan worthy of wearing the crown operated as an electoral body. It was under the Clan Council, as it came to be called, that Mularuhm remained stagnant, the result of infighting and bickering from the lack of a clear leader. Eventually it was uncovered by the Line Readers of Mularuhm that the supposedly lowborn Konhagen Rocksplitter was in fact a distant nephew of Kalderdan. With this revelation the Clans of Gemgrinder and Stonesinger leapt at the chance to groom the lowborn castemember into an acceptable heir the Clans would support. Through political maneuvering and deals made with the other Clan Heads Konhagen was granted legitimacy to the Clan Name Ringmaker, married to the eldest daughter of the Clan Gemgrinder, and elected to the seat of High King in an emergency moot. The raised Konhagen, now High King, now sits upon the Stone Throne, though the deals made by the Clans who aided him to secure his position yet still lay in shadow and the Commoner King still has yet to prove himself in the position of a leader. Resources The Mularuhm Dwarves harvest Shellfish from their river. The river has countless clams, crawfish, and crabs. Once outsiders get over the fact that they often lack eyes and pigment, they find they taste the same as any other. They also mine both Mithril and Gold from the far reaches of their caves. There are minor mines near the city, most of which are low yield iron or copper, but farther away from The River are large veins of Gold and Mithril. Around these veins spring up the only Mularuhm towns not on the river. They mine out the metals and ship them inward to the river, where they are processed and sold. They are lacking a source of Wood, however. It is needed in droves for torches, support beams, ships, and countless other uses. Religion The Mularuhm have traditionally practised a mix of animism and ancestor worship – the dead act as interpreters between the spirit world and the human one. A typical family home will have a shrine in the back, where the ashes of the dead are interred. For problems around the home and in their personal lives, they will pray to the dead of their family – either someone who is revered for being wise, or someone tied to the problem in some way. Those who are renowned through their clan (including all former clan leaders) are interred in a much nicer temple, often its own building or in the back of the local administration building. Because of the extra space, some clans have taken to mummifying their dead rather than burning, though this practice has not taken off everywhere. These dead are prayed to for larger, clan wide, problems. With the recent unification into a single kingdom, there was a great Mausoleum dug out in Dag Torum. Here those who have rendered great service to their High King and the Mularuhm at large are buried. Each has also been given a Day of Remembrance, when the entire population is supposed to stop and give thanks to them for whatever deed they dead to earn their honor. In the 460s, the kingdom officially converted to worship of the Lord of Fire.http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18313164&postcount=742 References http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=17850169&postcount=28 Category:Regions Category:Underground Regions Category:Capital Regions Category:Regions in the Salterri Imperium Category:Regions of Telluris Category:Underground Regions of Telluris Category:Capital Regions of Telluris